


Hope

by SometimesRaven



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Episode: The Day of the Doctor, Exposition, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gallifrey Falls No More, Hope, Hopeful Ending, Major Original Character(s), Time War, Time War Angst, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 17:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8337202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SometimesRaven/pseuds/SometimesRaven
Summary: Gallifrey Falls No More -- words that give hope unlike anything before them. The Doctor isn't sure how his daughter will react to the news, but he can hardly hide it from her, can he?





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this way back when the episode aired aha and I think it's right to go here first aaah. I haven't posted a fanfic anywhere in years lmao I hope people enjoy it b/c I'm scared as hell aha

The Doctor stood silently under the dim light of the TARDIS, listening to the grinding and wheezing of ancient machinery around him. He sighed heavily, dreading the moment he knew would come eventually; but at the same time, a spark of excitement filled his hearts, giving him hope for the future. He didn’t turn around as Sapphire walked in, rolling his eyes as he heard the click of a gun being rested in its holster. Once upon a time he'd berate her for that, carrying weaponry -- and using it, far more often than was necessary -- but her stubborn insistence on continuing that way had eventually lead to him giving up on that one.

“Something wrong, father?” she wondered, and he swore he felt her eyes burning green against his back. She could feel his mixed emotions, he knew; his excitement and fearful anticipation. He didn't know how she was going to react to this; and if her empathy wasn't such a tool for good and love, he might have cursed it for making it so impossible to keep things from her.

“We don’t talk about the War anymore,” he said reluctantly.

“… Which war? There’s been many,” she returned, false innocence in her voice as he heard her fiddling with various ammunition and weaponry strapped to her.

“The Time War.”

Silence; stillness, then the sound of her returning to equipping herself, “There’s a reason for that,” she murmured darkly.

He turned to face her then, leaning against the console and watching her for a long moment. Her eyes were focused on hiding her weapons; a knife in her boot, a gun underneath her jeans… She was equipping for a hunt. It was something she did from time to time; utilising her skills in combat to hunt down kidnapped people and kill those who'd taken them.

“When I first met you - or rather, when you first met me - you were just a child. I saved you…”

“And then you took me to the world you later destroyed; yes, I know the story - I was there,” Sapphire finished quickly, determined to skip this whole conversation. The Time War destroyed so much... She herself had felt its devastation very early on. Just a child, her world had been in the throes of its own war, a territorial war between her people, the Kalka'shar, and the Shifters of the northern lands. When the war was at its peak, the Time War had spread far enough to reach her people, destroying what was left of the already devastated world. If not for The Doctor, she'd have fallen with the rest of them. Instead, she was passed on to Gallifrey, living a reclusive childhood amongst the Time Lords until it, too, was destroyed -- by none other than The Doctor himself.

“Then when I saw you again, you were a slave… But not just to Zerral,” he continued, “but to your own emotions.”

“Doctor,” she warned slowly. Zerral was the father of her husband; an abusive, disgusting slaver collecting rare species and selling them or their abilities like trophies and tools, and she had been amongst them. She'd not known The Doctor was her father until the day he came to save her again, centuries after the war had separated them.

“You were still raw… Still frightened.”

“Doctor.”

“You called me ‘Murderer’”

_“Doctor,”_ she snapped more forcefully. She couldn’t return to those times; couldn’t bear to remember them. There was no question about it - she never wanted to return to her past again.

The Doctor fell silent for a moment, watching her through sad eyes, “I wish I’d known then what I know now.”

His daughter stilled again, not looking up at him. A flicker of doubt crossed her face. “…What do you mean?”

The tiniest of smiles touched her father’s mouth, “What if I told you Gallifrey didn’t fall?”

“I would wonder if you’d finally lost the last of your sanity,” she returned dryly, shaking her head and returning to polishing a throwing knife.

He gave a tiny chuckle, “Gallifrey didn’t fall.”

“Father, what on earth are you talking about?" Annoyance made her voice a quiet hiss, her polishing growing more forceful as she spoke, "I watched it fall… I watched Gallifrey _burn_ , I watched the Daleks _burn_ … I watched everything die. _Again_.” As she spat the last word she turned to look at him properly; eyes dark with pain.

“It’s still out there somewhere." The Doctor's eyes sparked with a distant happiness; a reminiscent kind of hope she hadn't seen in so long, and she knew he was telling the truth. She didn't understand it, but she felt the relief and glee in his chest, even as his voice remained soft as always. "I didn’t destroy it," he continued, "I locked it in stasis and moved it; the Daleks destroyed themselves. _Gallifrey falls no more_.”

Emerald gaze softened for a moment, swept away in his emotions and the shocked squeezing in her own chest, before darkening in denial once more. The truth in his words was only the truth as he believed it. He could still be mistaken -- there was too much resting on this for her to take his word as final. “Prove it.”

At once, The Doctor turned to the console again, bringing up an image on the screen. Gallifrey, as it was all that time ago… Surrounded by the Daleks, all firing at once. Sapphire’s breath hitched as she stared at the image; hearing the screams and fire all over again, her stomach churning and her hearts kicking into overdrive as she almost lost herself in the fear and the grief all over again.

“I don’t understand… W-what am I supposed to be s-seeing…?” she stammered, swallowing heavily as she forced her eyes away from the screen.

“You didn’t see it, did you? You saw the moment but you didn’t see what happened _before_ it all…” He hit a dial and the image flickered to zoom in, and-.. _Oh._  A tiny gasp escaped his daughter’s lips as she watched a dozen TARDISes come into focus; all easily recognisable as her father's.

“Impossible…” she murmured, raising a hand defensively to her throat as her mind slowly put the pieces together, “You…”

“I’d forgotten," he explained, "The timelines were all… mixed up and muddled; wibbly wobbly. But now Time has caught up with me, and I… _remember_. Thirteen of me, all at the same moment in time; all doing exactly the same thing. Stasis cubes, all activating at once.”

“You put the entire world into stasis,” she realised, the hope she'd forced away beginning to glimmer and spark in her eyes.

“And the Daleks were still firing.”

“So they killed each other… All in one moment.”

The Doctor nodded, a bittersweet look in his eyes as Sapphire choked back a joyful sob, still staring at the screen with wide, teary eyes. _“They’re alive…"_


End file.
